Useful Equipment
Equipment and accessories can make your gym experience more fruitful as you become more advanced.
When you’re just starting out at the gym 99% of progress can be made with minimal to no accessories.
But say you are becoming more advanced. What equipment should you use?
Well here’s a list of items I carry around with me in my gym bag and their uses.
Wrist straps
As you begin to lift more weight there comes a point when your grip strength fails before your back does.
We have to consider how your grip is maintained by 4 small forearm muscles.
When you contrast this with the size of your back, it makes logical sense that weaknesses in our grip will need to be addressed to maximise the full potential of our back muscles. Enter… wrist straps.
Whether you use figure of 8 straps or standard lifting straps, they will ensure your grip strength is no longer a limiting factor and you can begin training your back closer to failure.
I recommend working up to your working sets without straps to still work on your grip strength.
Knee Sleeves & Wrist/Elbow Wraps
The idea behind these is simple.
Increased support around joints - important if you’ve had a previous injury.
Elastic potential - if you are lifting heavy and could do with extra help coming out of ‘the hole’ e.g. bottom part of deep squats)
Both reasons are very different.
If you don’t have any injuries I’d suggest staying away from them for now to allow your joints to naturally adapt to mechanical stress.
If not for injury prevention - use them for heavy compounds only.
Bands
Incredibly useful for warmups.
Nursing an injury is not fun and will put you out for weeks to months. As you become more advanced and lift more weight, the warming up of joints and muscles becomes more important.
I’d recommend placing added emphasis on shoulders and knees (once these go they can cause problems long term).
Bands can help to warm up muscles and prime joints for a heavy session.
It doesn’t have to be long - just make sure you do it.
Lifting Belt
Probably the Crown Jewels of lifting gear: more of a show piece to the average Jo but immensely valuable to seasoned lifters.
Novice lifters don’t need lifting belts.
If you’re training squats or deadlifts, practice proper form, build up core strength and learn how to brace.
The biggest problem with belts is that people think simply slapping on a belt will provide lower back support. They then proceed to lift 150kg with poor form, a rounded back and improper bracing.
Belts should be used as a cue to increase intra-abdominal pressure (bracing) by inhaling, pushing the diaphragm down and fixing your core.
Perfect your form before investing $$$ in a belt!
Headphones
One of my more extravagant investments (but SO important to me).
I carry AirPods Pro & Sony XM4s in my bag.
The AirPods for cardio and on hot/chill days (they stop my ears getting sweaty), XM4s for big lifts and when I need more focus.
The noise cancelling on the XM4s is crazy and help me focus (+ the sound quality is insane).
Music in general is such a big part of my gym routine so no expenses were spared here!
Extras:
Foam rollers: If your gym hasn’t got one, it’s worth investing in one to stretch and roll out those stiff muscles as part of your warmup!
Gallon bottle: If you’re like me and drink water like a fish during your workouts just invest in a HUGE bottle. It will save you from lining up for the water fountain after each set!
Flat shoes: Vans and converse for legs days! If you squat in running shoes with a 10mm drop between heel and toe…. you are an EEJIT!! You want increased stability - an even better idea is doing them barefoot as it allows your toes to naturally spread like mini stabilisers.
Apple Watch: For runs they track everything - heart rate, distance, cadence, elevation, ground contact time etc. So important in analysing progress. They also track workouts too which is helpful and syncs directly to my phone.
As you can see, a lot of these accessories are for ease of gym use and/or personal satisfaction.
But that doesn’t go without saying - if you find yourself in a position where you could do with that extra bit of support to smash through plateaus, these accessories may be exactly what you need!
Michael Jordan
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”
